... raw ... Mazzei presents a candid book that reveals a lot about sex workers and the consumers who indulge in these exchanges, exposing the complex emotions experienced on both sides of a scene.
... a compelling deep dive into the world of sex work, from someone who’s done it themselves ... The movie draws on Mazzei’s own experiences, meaning that it covers a lot of the same ground as the memoir in a way that can feel repetitive to people who have both read the book and seen the film. But the movie picks up near the end of Mazzei’s story, and much of her origin there is implicit, whereas the memoir takes the time to draw out her origin story in a way that is both compelling and unexpected to people not involved in the sex work industry ... Ultimately, though, what Mazzei’s memoir achieves is to convey the image of sex work as work—as a job that doesn’t differ fundamentally from any other job ... Mazzei doesn’t need you to want the job, nor does she need you to see sex work as a spotless industry that needs no restructuring. She just wants you to let the people who do want it to work in peace.
The book is messy and heartfelt, part confession and part cultural essay, as Mazzei dives deep into the contradictions of her work as a camgirl. She is part of a larger tradition of female writers who use the personal as a means of exploring and deconstructing desire. Her take differs from those of predecessors like Anaïs Nin and Catherine Millet, born of a wholly new context ... Mazzei’s writing is astute and funny. She makes heavy use of internet speak, even transcribing instant messaging exchanges with viewers. This also sets her apart from her literary fellows, as she relies less on fantasy.
A bildungsroman without bildung, Camgirl is a connect-the-dots of commonplaces ... You can’t quite call this self-deception because there is never much of a self on display: no passions are ever indulged, no values stood up for or betrayed ... Even descriptions of others are almost impenetrably superficial, as though the text had been dispossessed of any notion of interior life beyond a mishmash of self-help clichés ... When prose is this empty, the problem is substantive and not just stylistic: everything is predetermined, so nothing can develop, and the same pop psychology idiom purports to illuminate Mazzei’s adolescent distress, her self-assertion through sex work, and her redemption when she admits her childhood abuse to a therapist ... Still, there is a wealth of anecdotal material here, particularly in Mazzei’s chats with her customers, and in this genre, anecdote is often more valuable than the appearance of rigor because specialist literature without an agenda is nearly non-existent.
Mazzei writes about her online adventures with a self-assured, casual flow and never skimps on the details of her racy, erotic two-year tenure as a camgirl ... Readers interested in the fascinating world of online chat-room hosts will get a fully guided tour courtesy of Mazzei’s intimate, interactive broadcasts ... A vivacious chronicle of how Mazzei channeled her sexuality into a lucrative business, which became an epiphanic experience as well.
